What’s happening in retail & with brands – trends for week ending 5th August 2011
Clothing, Footwear & Accessories
• Brand Alley have plans to launch an online TV channel. (Source: Retail Week)
• It has been reported that Martin Schofield, Retail Operations and Information Technology Director, is to leave Harvey Nichols. (Source: Retail Week)
• House of Fraser have plans to open a new format click-and-collect store in Aberdeen next month. (Source: Retail Bulletin)
• River Island have plans to launch their first print advertising campaign in September’s fashion bibles. (Source: Retail Week)
• It is reported that Sir Tom Hunter has acquired a £1m stake in the Sports Direct. (Source: The Guardian)
• Tesco have promoted Jan Marchant, Buying Director for clothing in UK, to Design Director of their clothing business, F&F Europe.
• It is reported that Zara have confirmed that they are to launch their website in the US, this September.
Electrical & Entertainment
• Best Buy have introduced independent service reviews on their e-commerce website to enable customers to publicly rate their ‘service performance’ and the products they purchase.
• HMV have partnered with Island Records to invite fans to nominate their all time favourite Queen lyric as part of the band’s 40th anniversary.
Food & Drink
• Krispy Kreme UK have plans to launch three new coffee bars over the next few months as part of their expansion plans in the UK.
• Ocado have plans to open a warehouse in Oxford. The center is expected to create up to 170 jobs. (Source: Retail Week)
• Tesco have plans to open a retro style 1960s store at vintage motor festival Goodwood Revival next month. (Source: Retail Week)
• Tesco have appointed Bernadette Lusher as the Buying Director for their UK clothing business. (Source: Financial Times).
Household
• The Co-operative Group have opened their new state-of-the-art distribution centre in Newhouse, Scotland, with a capital investment of £25m. (Source: Retail Bulletin)
• Dwell have plans to expand with the launch of a new product range and by opening more stores.
• Fat Buddha have plans to launch an e-commerce website exclusively designed for their up-scale customers and brands. (Source: Drapers)
• IKEA have plans to install 39,000 solar panels in their UK stores, followed by the purchase of a wind farm in Scotland.
• Lewis’s Home Retail, part of Benross Group have acquired TJ Hughes’ flagship store in Liverpool and three other sites in Eastbourne, Glasgow and Sheffield. It is also reported that Benross have also acquired the TJ Hughes brand. (Source: Verdict)
• Poundland have plans open six new stores in the Republic of Ireland by the end of their financial year in March 2012.
Company results:
• Carpetright Plc have reported a 1.5% decline in sales for the 12 weeks to 23 July 2011. UK sales declined by 2.3% and like-for-like sales declined by 0.2% compared to the previous year.
• Findel Plc have reported a 1.1% increase in sales for the 17 weeks to 03 August 2011.
• Zara UK have reported a pre-tax profit of £15.8m, an increase of £618,000 compared to the previous year.
• Next Plc have reported a 3.2% increase in Next brand sales (exclusive of VAT) for the 26 weeks to 30 July 2011. Retail sales declined by 1.7% for the same period.
• The Original Factory Shop have reported a decline in EBITDA to £13.3m for the year to 27 March 2011 as compared to £14.9m the previous year.
• John Lewis have reported a 1.2% increase in sales (including VAT) for the week to 30 July 2011. Fashion and Electricals & Home Technology reported an increase of 2.9% and 3.2% respectively. Sales in the Home category declined by 1.2%. Sales at johnlewis.com increased by 33.6% for the same period.
• Travis Perkins have reported a 7.2% increase in like-for-like sales for the six months to 30 June 2011. Pre-tax profit increased by 20.5% to £129.2m for the same period.
• Waitrose have reported a 10.2% increase in sales (including petrol) for the week to 30 July 2011.
Industry update
According to the BRC and Nielsen Shop Price Index for July 2011, overall shop price inflation declined to 2.8% in July from 2.9% in June. Food inflation declined to 5.2% in July from 5.7% in June while non-food inflation remained stable at 1.3%.
According to research by Site Confidence (a website monitoring and load testing firm), the performance of the UK’s top retail websites is declining. The UK’s top 50 online retailers had an average of 3 hours 41 minutes of downtime in the second quarter of 2011, a 35% increase on the first quarter of the year.
According to research by database and loyalty marketing specialist GI Insight, just under half of UK consumers are driven to visit a company website by an item of direct mail. Just over a third (34%) of respondents said that most of the direct marketing they receive, notice and take action on comes through the post, while 33% said they are more responsive to email-only communications. Another third were not driven solely by marketing activity across a single channel, but were more likely to take action if they received a combination of post and email communications.
Courtesy of ‘The Thinker’
